In this issue...

Members News

At Fair

I am going to the fair. I am going to help the blind. It is going to be fun. I am
also going to the fair again. I am going to help in the Cake Booth. My friend
might come, she is 12 years old. She is sweet.

County Fair
Garden

We built a garden in the county fair. Then, we put some stakes with
numbers on them and a big sign which told you what those plants were. I
wrote about soaproot for the brochure. The theme was camping 101 and
we had a tent in the back. We lost because we thought we were dealing
with a smaller space so we didn't bring that many plants. I thought it was
the most educational of all of them because we had a brochure and the dos
and don'ts of camping. We had native plants and it looked really cool.
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 1
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You could lead a 4-H project!
(Contact Tanya iI you are interested.)
1
East Hills 4-H
Newsletter
October 2013
Sausal Creek

First, the junior leader made a presentation about dream catchers. She
told us that Indians believed that dream catchers would catch their dreams
for them. Then we each got a willow hoop about a foot long around. We
tied a string on the hoop. Next we circled the string around the hoop in
different shapes. We put some beads on, and then feathers. Finally, it was
finished. Then we headed to the trail where our restoration site was. At
first, we climbed the hill and started pulling out ivy and spider wart. But one
of the kids stepped on a wasps nest and got stung four times. Next
everyone got down the hill as fast as they could to get away from the yellow
jackets. Then we started pulling out onion bulbs. We got about 30 bulbs.
We got four two foot tall gardening bags full of bulbs, grass, spider wart,
blackberries, and ivy.
Berry Picking

Our 4-H club went berry picking. It was fun. We picked a lot of berries.
There were a lot of kids that helped. The
next day, we sold the berries to people who came to the Farmers Market.
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 2
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 3
County Fair Garden
Yellow Jackets!

We were making dream catchers out of willow branches, beads, string, and
feathers. Since I was the photographer I took some photos of the dream
catchers. After that we went up to the site and did some weeding. I went
out on the hillside and took some black berries, Ivy, and Spiderwort, but
there was a wasps! nest and one of the kids got stung so we decided to get
down. Then I took out a bunch of onion bulbs.
My First Club Meeting

I liked my first Club Meeting. It was fun to listen to all the people talking
about 4H. I liked sitting next to my friends at the meeting.
I really liked the Bingo Game. It was fun to meet people and ask people to
sign your paper.

I liked that we got lollipops at the end of the game.
I'm excited to get my Record book. I want to get a 4H hat
and a shirt, too.
Only Two Arrows

In the September archery meeting we reviewed all the stuff we did last
year. I only got to shoot two arrows. One of the arrows missed the
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 4
target. I armed the other arrow but I was holding the bow upside down
and the string hit my arm.
Wind Powered Boats

In tech challenge, I explained that tech challenge is a big competition at the
San Jose Tech Museum. The challenge is about wind power and not yet
announced so we studied the effects of wind on boats. We made wind
powered boats out of index cards, tape, paper clips and egg cartons. Two
boats went the farthest and straight off the table. Mine only blew 15 inches
out. The smallest boats wouldn't move.
Sausal Creek

For our September meeting, we met in the eld below our restoration site at
Sausal Creek.
Our junior leader gave a presentation and showed us how to make
dreamcatchers. We used little willow tree branches for them, and string
and beads and feathers. Dreamcatchers are traditionally placed at the head
of a baby's cradle to catch bad dreams and keep them away from the baby.
Some of the project members went up to work at our site. The rest of us
were going to go up there too, but we ran out of time, because we spent so
much time working on the dreamcatchers!
Later at home I found out more about dreamcatchers. The Ohlone who
lived around Sausal Creek didn't make dreamcatchers. It's more a tradition
of people who lived around the Great Lakes, like the Ojibwe people.
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Another thing I learned is that the word "Sausal" comes from the Spanish
word for Willow tree. And last year we helped to plant some Willow tree
branches in the ground at Sausal creek. You can plant a Willow branch
straight into the soil and it will sprout roots and grow into a Willow tree!
Boom-Wasp Attack

In Sausal Creek, we made dream catchers
out of willow, string, feathers and beads
after I gave a presentation about dream
catchers. I taught the kids how to make
dream catchers and that was fun. And some
of the older kids went over to the hill, and
we climbed up with our clippers and pick
axes and went whack, whack whack. After
we went whack, whack, whack, we pulled the invasive ivy down from the
trees. And boom, someone hit a wasp's nest and a boy and another adult
volunteer got stung a bunch, and everyone got scared and ran down the
hill. Some of us went to visit the rabbit, Blizzard, in the Diamond Park
recreation center. At the end, we played a game called Ninja.
Emergency Preparedness

The Emergency Preparedness project was this past Friday. There were five
people in the class. We talked about preparing for earthquakes. Also, you
should be prepared for fires because they can happen anywhere. We will
learn how to prepare for them in the future.
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Chickens, Chickens,
Chickens!

This is my rst year in 4-H, and I want to tell you about the Poultry project.
In Poultry this year I'm going to get ready to show my chicken at the
country fair. My family has four chickens and I will tell you their names:
Gertrude, Whinny, Daisy and Beatrix. My Chicken is Daisy, and she is a
Americana; she is very fast. In Poultry we are making chicken food and
learning how to take care of them. Last week at Poultry we looked at the
anatomy of an egg. We even broke one open, and found the Germ spot.
Do you know what a Germ Spot is? I'm really excited about poultry and
getting ready for the country fair!
Life 101

At our first Life 101 project meeting, we began discussing the kinds of
careers that we would be most interested in doing. We used the book
What Color is Your Parachute for Teens to begin analyzing our likes and
dislikes as well as the marketable skills we already have. We learned
about our Holland codes which uses the strong aspects of your personality
to steer you toward a good career choice.
For our likes and dislikes, we talked about lots of different variables that
would come into play in whatever job we choose to do. We were
encouraged to look at not just the things we like to do, but the
environments in which we do them. Do we want to work in a city, a suburb,
or a rural area? Do we like to be inside or outdoors? Do we want to be in
a formal environment (where everyone calls each other Mr. or Mrs.) or do
we prefer a more relaxed one? We talked about how important it is to think
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 7
about these types of things because people spend almost a third of their
lives at their place of employment so we want to be sure it's one we enjoy.
To analyze our skills, we were told to write a short story about something
we had accomplished. It could be anything from learning something in
school, to being on a 4H committee, to completing a fair entry. Our stories
had to include: what our goal was, how long it took to complete, the steps
involved, and the eventual outcome. I wrote mine about the difficulty in
mastering a recipe for meringue cookies.
Once our stories were finished, we went back and checked off the skills we
used on a checklist. For my story, I used skills like working with equipment
(mixers and the stove), researching information (looked for recipes, found
out the correct temperature of the eggs when the batter wasn't working),
etc. Before our next meeting, we each have to write and analyze 4 more
stories so we can compile our lists to see what our strongest skills are.
Finding our Holland code was really interesting. We were told to imagine
we were walking into a party. The people at the party had divided
themselves into 6 groups according to their interests - Realistic (people
who like nature, sports, or tools), Investigative (people who like to research
things and are very curious), Artistic (people who are creative or
imaginative), Social (people who like to help, teach, or serve others),
Enterprising (people who like to start projects or businesses), and
Conventional (people who like detail work and to complete projects). We
were told to choose which group we would most like to join at the party.
That gave us the first letter of our code.

Then, we were told to imagine that group left the party after about 15
minutes, so we needed to choose another group to join. That was the
second letter of our Holland codes. We repeated the process one more
time to get the final letter in the code. My code was ARI. When we went
home, we were able to take our codes to the website
www.cacareerzone.com to get suggestions for jobs that might suit our
personality types. I discovered that people with my personality type tend to
be good photographers, set designers, makeup artists, and architects.
They also make good chefs, which is what I want to be.
We learned a lot about ourselves at this first meeting, and I'm looking
forward to the rest of the project.
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Creating a Ghostbuster
Game

The Scratch Computer programming Project is a project I am taking with
the Dublin 4H Club. The first meeting was an introduction to Scratch. The
junior leader introduced us to Scratch, which is a basic form of computer
programming in which you can manipulate a character known as a sprite
through programming. The default one is a cat, which you can make meow
and move (I made him move and meow at the same time). We also created
a game which was called Ghostbuster, in which you manipulate a knight
and try to catch a moving ghost in a box. I did not figure out how to close
the box yet, but we did make a third sprite by drawing a laser to lure the
ghost into the box. I also learned the basics of Scratch. Some of the things
I look forward to doing on Scratch are making video games and 3-D
models.
The second meeting, we added a second laser to repel the ghost, while the
first one drew the ghost to the ghostbuster. What I have to figure out now is
how merge the two lasers, put the ghost in the trap and close the trap.
The Vice-President's Corner
I want to welcome everyone back to a new 4H year. It's going to be
another fun one full of activities, events, and community service
opportunities. This month alone we have Achievement Night, Skate Night,
and Trick-or-Treating for Kids Against Hunger.
I'd also like to remind everyone to sign up for our various committees at the
next club meeting. We still need plenty of helpers on the Set-up
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committees for the rest of the year (thank you to everyone who responded
to my call for October committee members)! You can sign up for the month
of your choice in the sign-in binder.
We also still need projects to sign up to host the mid-meeting activities this
year. So far, we don't have any projects signed up for this very important
committee (though Life 101 has stepped in to handle October's meeting).
Everyone looks forward to the mid-meeting activities because it's nice to
have that short break in all the business. The meetings can get awfully
long without them.
We have no one signed up for the Community Service committee, either.
Things this committee has done in the past include: making cards for
soldiers, doing a pet food drive, origami cranes, etc. Doing community
service is an important part of the record books, so we'd like to make sure
there are plenty of opportunities available for everyone.
There are lots of ways to get involved with the club this month. I look
forward to seeing you all!
Trick-or-Treat for Kids
Against Hunger

Kids Against Hunger is a non-profit organization that buys and packages
food, then gives it away for free to starving children in other countries or in
natural disaster areas. The food is a rice mixture with vitamins, soy for
protein, and dried vegetables. It only costs 25 to make one of these
meals. To prepare the food, you just add water and boil it for a while. For
some kids the food from Kids Against Hunger is the only meal they will
have in a day.
4-H members of all ages are invited and encouraged to help with this global
community service activity by asking for donations while trick-or-treating in
October. Even if you are not going trick-or-treating you can still help
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 10
fundraise by asking your friends and family if they would like to donated to
Kids Against Hunger. Members can also ask local businesses if they would
like to donate or if they would let you leave a donation boxes on their
counter. This year we hope to raise over 3,000 dollars! We have
information flyers for you to hand out (they will be e-mailed out to club
members soon, so check your e-mail for info about this project). The last
thing you will need is a Kids Against Hunger donation box. We have five
boxes for our 4-H club to use to collect donations with this year, but I know
that everyone will want to help. Even if you dont have an official donation
box from Kids Against Hunger, you can still help, just make your own
donation box by taking a Kids Against Hunger information flyer and gluing it
to the front of a regular box. It might seem hard at first to ask people for
donations for Kids Against Hunger, but after the first few times it does get a
lot easier! One thing to remember is that even if they say they dont want to
donate right then, you can give them an information flyer. They might
change their mind and make a donation later on the Kids Against Hunger
website.
After 4-H members fund raise for Kids Against Hunger in October, we will
need your help to get all the full (or empty) donation boxes back to the
November leaders council meeting on November 26. Once we have
finished fundraising, we will all go to the Kids Against Hunger warehouse
and help package the food we helped buy. The packing event date is
scheduled for January 25 at 1:30pm. We will most likely have a few more
packing events later in the 4-H year!
The Wasp Incident
Once upon a time there was a boy who was
innocently going to a 4-H project meeting.
The meeting was for a Sausal Creek Clean-
up, which meant taking out non-native
plants. We had decided to clear out a hillside
full of ivy and spiderwort. I was one of the
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 11
first to go up. For a while nothing happened, then I felt something on the
back of my neck. It felt like a sting. My first thought was: Bee! I said, I think
a wasp or bee is stinging me. Then my friends mom told me it was a
yellow jacket. She started brushing them off me. I felt one more but later I
found out I got four stings. My friends mom got one sting. My mom came.
She gave me Benadryl. I decided to stop clean up early.
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 12
I dressed up as a reporter and went
trick or treating for Kids Against
Hunger last fall, with my sister. (at
the right, you can see the inside of
our full donation box)
Holiday Food Drive 2013
Once again, East Hills 4H, along with several of the other 4H clubs
throughout the county, will be partnering up with the Alameda County
Community Food Bank to gather donations for their annual food drive at
Safeway. With 1 in 6 Alameda County residents currently relying on the
food bank to provide for their families, the need is great.
On Saturday, November 23, we will be working outside the Safeway in San
Leandro, passing out fliers and collecting donations. This community
service opportunity is open to members of all ages. If you'd like to help out
for an hour or two, the sign-up sheet will be available at both the October
and November club meetings.
Last year, East Hills members collected 87 of the $10 donation bags of
food as well as many other individual cans and boxes. In fact, not a single
donation was made to
the food bank that
entire weekend when
we weren't there.
Having 4H'ers outside
the store makes a
huge difference!
Open
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 13
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 14
House
I introduced the ping pong project. Then we introduced Sausal Creek
and I talked about what we have been doing in the past. There was
not that many projects so there was a lot of people in each project. In
the Sausal creek project we had about 20 people. In my ping pong
project there was about 15 people. We had a lot of new families.
4-H Open House Acrostic
Poem
4-H Pledge,
Happy there were a lot of people I knew at the meeting!
Outside on the structure after the meeting was fun,
Pledge of Allegiance,
Everyone was friendly,
Not just about animals!
Hickman friends were there
Ofcers leading the meeting,
Unusual google map directions helped us get lost on the way there,
Sure was interesting to hear about all the projects,
Excellent-looking cakes from Cake Decorating project!
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 15
Come join the Responsible
Pet Project!
The Responsible Pet Ownership 101 project is being led by a
member out of Redwood 4-H. This is a service learning project, so the
members will learn about responsible pet care, and then go out to the world
to teach elementary aged youth about pet care. For example, vaccinations,
spaying/neutering, food and water, etc.
This project applied for a $1000 grant from the state because the state is
doing a program called Revolution of Responsibility. This program is giving
out $1000 to 1000 different service learning projects from around the state.
Because this project is a service learning project, they applied for a $1000
grant, and got $1000. However, the project realized that they needed close
to $2200 to fund all of their supplies. Last June, two of the project members
went to the Alameda County 4-H Leaders Council and asked them for
$600, and they got that too. Right now, the project has around $1700
dollars, so the project still needs to do some more fundraising to get to the
$2200 goal. The big events that the project has already participated in were
the Adopt a-thon on July 13

and the State Fair. There will be another event
at the Dublin SPCA in October. We will be having a meeting in October at
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 16
the Dublin SPCA for planning out our booth. This project regularly meets
the third Monday from 7:30 8:30, and the meeting place has not yet been
decided.
Ping Pong is Awesome

I went to my first ping pong project meeting. I got to play with lots of
different people because I switched with the other players. The junior
leader taught me to throw the ball up in the air and hit it when I served. I
was asked to learn a fun fact,and I learned that the ball is filled with a
plastic material. Also, the table is 9 feet long, 5 feet wide and 30 inches
high. Ping pong was started in the late 1800's in England as an after dinner
game among the rich. I liked it a lot because it was really fun.
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 17
Being the Newsletter Editor

This past month, I have been the Newsletter Editor for East Hills 4-H for the
rst time. I have collected articles and photos from club members who have
sent them to me and organized them all into the newsletter.
I searched for pictures to go with the articles to try to make it eye-catching.
I can!t always nd good pictures for every article, but I tried. I!m learning
about formatting and page layout.
I have worked very hard on it, and it!s taken a lot of time, even though this
will probably be the shortest newsletter this year!
Overall, I had a whole lot of fun putting it together, even though some parts
were frustrating. I want to thank my predecessor for teaching me the
ropes!!!
It was all up to me to decide what fonts and sizes I wanted everything to
be, and I had to try to make sure all of the pictures and photos didn!t go
outside of the page margins. I had to try to make sure all of the titles of the
articles were the exact same size, and font. I did a lot of copy and pasting!
I also had to create the Table of Contents for the newsletter. Even though it
comes at the beginning, I had to nish the newsletter before I could nish
the table of contents, because I couldn!t know ahead of time what page of
the newsletter each article would be on!
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 18
I got a whole new email address just for Newsletter Articles. I posted that
email on the 4-H Yahoo group, and I was glad I got some responses.
Thank you to everyone who sent me articles and photos! If you didn!t get a
chance to send me something yet, there will be lots more opportunities.
You can send me something any time. Thanks again everyone!
East Hills 4-H October Newsletter Page 19